With sights set on World Cup title, Canadian women's soccer team will learn groupings in weekend draw

The Canadian women's soccer team conquered the Olympics last summer in Tokyo, reaching the medal podium for a third consecutive time. Now it has its sights set on winning on the sport's biggest stage for the first time in its history.

Saturday's draw in Auckland will determine Canada's opening-round opponents for the 2023 FIFA World Cup, which runs from July 20 to Aug. 20 in Australia and New Zealand. Canada qualified for the World Cup by reaching the final of the CONCACAF W Championship staged in Mexico in July, losing 1-0 to the United States after posting shutout wins in its previous four matches in the competition.

Since then, the Olympic champions have won four friendlies against lower-ranked nations that will be competing at next year's World Cup, including a pair of victories against co-hosts Australia in September.

A rash of injuries left Canada undermanned and coach Bev Priestman scrambling her lineup for two games earlier this month. Among those missing from October's training camp were iconic captain Christine Sinclair and fullback Ashley Lawrence. But the plethora of absentees barely slowed down the Canadians, who mowed down Argentina 2-0 and followed that up with a 4-0 defeat of Morocco in southern Spain.

Watch the new CBC Sports show Soccer North airing weekly on CBC Gem and CBC Sports YouTube starting Friday, Oct. 28. Hosted by Andi Petrillo, Soccer North brings Canadians closer to the most interesting soccer headlines happening on and off the pitch.

These comprehensive performances showed that the team's depth is one of its greatest strengths. Still, the Reds would be well advised to arrange friendlies against stronger opponents going forward in the buildup to the World Cup, according to Canada Soccer